A Test of Strength
by Zaphirite
Summary: Being a superhero isn't all completely in the mask and magic. When her classmates see her muscles a challenge ensues, and Marinette is confident that she could take any of them on in an arm wrestling match. She's swung from buildings and defeated countless akuma, surely she could beat a civilian...right? [Part 1 of 3 of my non-reveal series, Tests of Perception]. One-shot!
It just had to be abnormally hot that day. That's what got her into this mess.

Or if only she kept her cardigan on and endured the heat, Marinette wouldn't have shrugged it off before leaving to her next class. It was just her luck that she didn't wait until everyone else started leaving the room when she heard Kim's exclamation.

"Woah! Dude, Marinette, since when were you so buff?"

She winced, turning to look behind her. Now everyone's attention was on her. Namely, her arms exposed by the sleeveless tank top she was wearing underneath. Even Alya's piercing gaze she could feel from behind. She was always careful about letting her arms show, or anything that gave away her athleticism from fighting crime.

"Just, ah…it's from carrying all the stuff in the bakery! Right. I can lift sacks of flour, no problem!" Bless her parents for having a profession she could get an excuse from. She rubbed the back of her head with an arm, not realizing until the change in everyone's surprised expressions that she just accidentally flexed for them. He arm dropped immediately.

And that's where it started. Kim instantly challenged her to an arm wrestling contest, which snowballed when Alix chimed in that he probably wasn't even the strongest boy in the room. Alya pitched in, sweetening the deal and holding out her phone to start recording.

"Send in your strongest guy and we'll send the girl's. Lunch hour at the picnic tables, we'll have our class showdown!"

So started the contest during lunch. Marinette just wanted to eat the pasta she brought from home and catch up on Alya's latest theories so she could derail them. Maybe get a glance at Adrien when he's dropped back to school by his chauffer, even.

But no, her grip was in Juleka's, who put up a decent fight with Rose cheering her on, but of course she had won after a few seconds. Chloe and Sabrina hadn't even bothered to show up. Despite her athleticism, Alix's strength was in her legs from rollerblading, so she didn't fight as hard as Marinette was expecting. Alya was recording the whole time - she didn't even try to face her best friend. Mylene did make an attempt, but even with using both hands she couldn't get the hero's arm to budge an inch from their starting point.

She had to admit…this challenge was kind of fun. Marinette knew that even without the strength from Tikki's powers, the time spent fighting and swinging from rooftops did show in her everyday body. A small surge of pride welled up in her chest as she claimed victory as the girl's champion. She could at least test her strength against a civilian for future reference in case she got caught somewhere and couldn't transform.

Juleka cleared the bench in front of her at the table and she saw the group of guys from her class approach. Some looked a little mystified, others just excited. Nino was also holding up his phone, recording the journey.

Of course she would win, this was not only her pride, but her pride as Ladybug on the line. Her confidence swelled as she stretched her right arm and placed it back on the table, bent into position and ready. Ladybug was sneaking up onto her face as she smirked at the group, head tilted to look at them.

"So who's ready to take me on?"

"That would be my honor."

Her face fell. The crowd of boys parted as Adrien made his way to the table, shedding off his white over-shirt. His black t-shirt sleeves were already rolled up to the top of his shoulders from earlier, revealing thin but _very_ toned arms.

'Oh dear God,' her brain was frying out, using all its power to prevent her eyes from bulging out of her head. 'Since when were _those_ biceps there?' She knew all his recent magazine spreads, there was no way she could have missed those guns-

His elbow thudded against the table, hand gripping hers tight. She faintly realizes his skin was slightly calloused, not too different from her own, before she looks up to meet his eyes.

She should have made a noise like a strangled squeal, or died from the force of all her blood rushing to her face. Hell, if she fainted she wouldn't have been surprised. Adrien Agreste was _holding_ (grasping) her hand-

Whatever was glinting in his emerald eyes had chased all nerves and all sense of Marinette out of her mind. That look ignited up a familiar fire in her that made Ladybug yank Marinette out of the drivers seat of her brain and take her mind for a joyride.

His eyes smirked at her. Hers narrowed back in response.

"Don't think I'm going to go easy on you, pretty boy." She readjusted her grip in his hands, shifting just slightly so that the edge of his ring band didn't dig into her joints. She faintly felt Alya's movement next to her, but didn't look to see the reaction.

A very uncharacteristic grin settled on Adrien's face. "I hope you brought enough firepower to this gun show."

Alix was looking back and forth between them with an eyebrow raised but didn't say anything as she held their clasped hands together.

Marinette was giggling to herself as Alix counted down from 5. So what if he had some muscle in his arms? His probably came from his modeling career, but hers actually had some experience and use beat into them. It was going to be easy.

Their hands were freed, and Adrien gave her a lazy, half-lidded look as he held his arm in place, eyes challenging her to make her first move.

Cocky was not a look she ever even imagined could grace the model's face, but she wanted nothing more than to wipe it right off. She smiled sweetly before pushing hard against his hand, tilting him 20 degrees back before his eyes widened in surprise.

His eyes darkened with something devious as he pushed back, and Marinette realized very quickly that this was on a completely different level than expected.

This was an actual war. And she was more than determined to win it. There was no way, no matter how handsome he was; she could lose to someone with such a leisurely civilian life. Now she had something to prove.

He took back her advantage, but despite both of them now visibly putting effort into the fight, their arms trembled but didn't budge from middle ground. The cheers around them turned fuzzy and died out in her ears as all her focus poured into her glare and her arm.

Marinette was starting to get annoyed, and she could see Adrien's brow furrowing in concentration. His mouth was now set in an open frown, his jaw tight. Both of them were gripping the edge of the table with their free hands and she could hear air hissing out from between his teeth in frustration.

"What's wrong? Running out of gas?" her voice practically purred out. Her arm was starting to tire but she wasn't done yet.

"Oh no, Princess. I'm just getting fired up." A small part of her brain noticed how low and smooth that comment went, but the rest of it was not having that today.

Their hands began to tremble even more as seconds ticked over to minutes, and now Marinette was mad because they hadn't even budged an _inch_ in either direction. They were both glaring at each other and each were practically growling from their throats at this point. The cheers died down by now and everyone just watched in amazement. If she was in her normal mindset, she would have been appalled at the things she was mentally cursing this boy. Her ring finger was growing numb from the pressure of the ring around his own digging into her hand that his touch was practically molded into hers.

She huffed through her nose. Okay, one last push-!

The bells started ringing, signaling the end of lunch and breaking the tense atmosphere. Oh, and her nerves returned full force, jolting like lighting as she pulled her hand out of his grasp. He blinked at her a few times before pulling back his own arm and scratching the back of his neck with a grin.

"Sorry, I guess I got really caught up in this. You really are amazingly strong, Marinette." He was a little flushed; she wasn't sure if it was in bashfulness or from the heat.

"We'll s-settle this another day, A-Agreste." She tried to bring back her confidence from earlier. Hopefully the stutter could be blamed on how she was trying to catch her breath.

The blond across from her was also breathing heavily, stretching out his arm. He flashed her a grin and his eyes lit up. "That was fun. I'll be looking forward to it."

The crowd dispersed and Adrien followed with them, pulling back on his white shirt, now appearing almost as immaculate as usual. He gave her a wink and a wave before catching up with Nino.

Marinette gaped from her seat on the bench, Alya trying to tug her arm and laughing.

"Jeeze, all it took was for you to fight the boy to be able to talk to him!" Somehow the hero got her legs to work and the two started back to their classroom.

Her brain was completely fried. It really was way too hot today.


End file.
